Page 7 - Wellbeing E-Book IV - Mindfulness

The History Mindfulness is so steeped in history that there is no way to truly do

it justice in such a compact publication. To this end, we have simply
highlighted the skeleton of where it has come from and how we came
to know it as it is today. Mindfulness has roots in Buddhist meditation,
of Mindfulness an ancient and valuable tradition that has lent a great deal to our

modern way of life. However, mindfulness has been created from
a very small part of the fabric of Buddhism and been transformed

into a secular practice.

Mindfulness in the western world is driven by the intention to be
something that is open and available to all people from all belief
systems. A crucial individual linked to bringing secular mindfulness
to the western world is Jon Kabat-Zinn, an American professor
of medicine who was based at the University Of Massachusetts

Medical School when he developed the first 8-week mindfulness
course that so many people have grown to know and love over
the years since its development in 1979. This course was born of
Kabat-Zinn’s own meditation practice and an experience he had
during a retreat in the UK, where he was overcome with a desire
to make this ability to connect with the present moment something
that was available to people from all walks of life.

Since the conception of the first ever Mindfulness Based Stress

Reduction (MBSR) course there have been thousands of studies
carried out on the efficacy of mindfulness with relation to physical
and mental health. The MBSR course has also inspired the creation
of countless other mindfulness programs and courses, including
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), that have been
taught to private individuals as well as in schools and workplaces
around the world. Mindfulness is a growing discipline and one

that provides us all with an opportunity to draw us away from
the multitude of thoughts in our minds and into the moment
we are actually in. In short, Mindfulness is a skill that has been
born from an ancient discipline and has been given a place to
exist in our modern western world.

To return once more to the question of what is mindfulness; Jon
Kabat-Zinn himself defines Mindfulness so succinctly by describing
it as: ‘paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and

non-judgmentally’. In summary, mindfulness is the practice and
the act of being in the present moment, the only moment that
is truly real and available to live in, rather than being caught up
in the past or future.